Transsaccadic working memory in healthy ageing and neurodegenerative disease.

Sijia Zhao, Thomas Parr, Rob Udale, Verena Klar, Gabriel Davis Jones, Anna Scholcz, Sofia Toniolo, Sanjay G Manohar, Masud Husain

Journal: eLife 2026;14():

PMID: 41733574

View on PubMed

Abstract

The brain continuously integrates rapidly changing visual input across eye movements to maintain stable perception, yet the precise mechanisms underpinning dynamic working memory and how these break down in brain diseases remain unclear. We developed a novel eye-tracking paradigm and computational models to investigate how spatial and colour information are updated across saccades in the human brain. Our findings reveal that saccades selectively impair spatial but not colour memory. Computational modelling identified that spatial representations are maintained in a dual eye-centred frame of reference which is actively updated by a noisy memory of saccades but is vulnerable to interference. Using this model, we found that specific mechanistic failures in initial encoding and memory decay, rather than the saccadic updating process itself, account for spatial working memory deficits in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of how dynamic spatial memory operates in health and its disruption in neurodegenerative disorders.

Address: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Cognitive Disorders Clinic, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.; Cognitive Disorders Clinic, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.7554/eLife.109581

MeSH Terms: Humans, Memory, Short-Term, Saccades, Male, Female, Healthy Aging, Aged, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Middle Aged, Adult